Upheld decision will be appealed, says Richard Niman

Toronto criminal lawyer Richard Niman says he plans take his client's case to the Ontario Court of Appeal after a judge upheld both convictions and sentence for stealing drugs while working as a police officer, according to the Waterloo Record.

According to the Record, the move to appeal would delay a disciplinary hearing on professional charges even longer. Andrew Robson, 31, an eight-year member of the local police service, spent over two years suspended with pay following his arrest in the fall of 2010 while the case made its way through the court system.

Niman, associate with Brauti Thorning Zibarras LLP, argued recently that Waterloo Regional Police improperly entrapped Robson in an on-the-job sting to see if he would steal marijuana, the Record reports.

However, Justice James Sloan found nothing wrong with the investigation or 60-day conditional sentence Robson received for taking two ounces of marijuana.

"This is essentially a breach of trust crime committed by a serving police officer and, if anything, it is at the lenient end of the scale," the judge wrote in a four-page decision.